Fall River's former Central Congregational faces wrecking ball

Tuesday

The former Central Congregational Church survived the wrecking ball in the 1990s, but its fate is once again caught between commerce and conservation.

Millennium BCP Bank, owner of the 137-year old edifice at 100 Rock St., is making plans to raze the structure.

The former Central Congregational Church survived the wrecking ball in the 1990s, but its fate is once again caught between commerce and conservation.

Millennium BCP Bank, owner of the 137-year old edifice at 100 Rock St., is making plans to raze the structure.

Demolition could happen as soon as March 13 if the bank pays all back taxes owed to the city in order to obtain a demolition permit.

“We’re disappointed of course. We thought we had it saved for all time,” said Al Lima of the preservation group Save Our Neighborhoods. Lima was the head of Save Architecturally Valued Edifices Inc. when the group first saved the church in 1997.

“It took us eight years to save that building,” Lima said.

The group sold the building to Chef George Karousos for $145,000. He ran the International Institute of Culinary Arts, Abbey Grill and Great Hall until the business met with financial woes that forced the building into foreclosure.
The building has been vacant and decaying for some three years now. Its steeple remains draped in black mesh to protect cars and passersby from falling brick.

The only way to save the old church, according to Lima and others, is for another entrepreneur to come forward with a plan.

“All we can hope is that someone will come along,” Lima said.

Attorney Johnna F. Tierney, representing Millennium BCP Bank, sent a notification on Sept. 13 to Darlene A. Pavao, chairwoman of the Fall River Historic Commission, that the bank intended to file for a demolition permit within six months.

Tierney did not return a call from The Herald News.

Pavao said she received the letter on Jan. 27. She said it was first delivered to the wrong office in Government Center and didn’t make it to her desk until that day.

By the time she received the letter, months had passed.

Meanwhile, a charette was held by the Preservation Society in December that brought together government and community leaders, along with educators and preservationists, with the sole purpose of finding an alternate use, and perhaps a buyer, for the site.

No one at the session was aware of the looming demolition date.

“We’re really concerned that it’s been scheduled for demolition,” Pavao said.
“We’re trying to find an alternate use for that building. It’s just such an important part of our local history.”

The building dates to 1875 and was the chosen house of worship of Lizzie Borden, the city’s most infamous citizen. Borden was the sole suspect in the murders of her father and stepmother in 1892. The case gained national attention and continues to do so to this day.

The church, according to Jim Soule, president of the Preservation Society, is also a “remarkable” structure of sandstone and brick and of Ruskian gothic design.

“It would be a great loss,” Soule said.

Soule said he wonders whether Millennium BCP Bank really wants to go through with demolition.

The bank would first need to pay about $175,000 in back taxes — most of it assumed in the foreclosure of the International Institute of Culinary Arts. The tax bill is about $4,000 a month.

Soule said it would also cost about $500,000 to demolish the structure — probably just shy of what it would cost to repair the steeple.

He said perhaps the bank is hoping to get the city’s or a buyer’s attention so the old church can be taken off its hands.

The property is currently for sale by Jack Conway Realtor for $275,000. It is assessed at $2.2 million.

Lima said he hasn’t lost hope that the old church can once again be saved.
“We did it once,” Lima said. “We can do it again. We can’t let it be town down. We just can’t.”

Soule said a meeting is scheduled for Feb. 28 with Mayor Will Flanagan to discuss alternate uses for the property.

Flanagan did not immediately return a call from The Herald News.
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Email Deborah Allard at dallard@heraldnews.com.

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